My "New" Toy or Anthropologie Catalog here I come!

Recently, I asked for a new toy.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  Like all interesting ideas it was quite expensive and hard to come by.  A good deal of arranging had to take place but my dear husband always seems to come through.  Now all this talk of gifts, you may think this was a birthday gift...but alas, this treasure has been sitting on my desk unused since Christmas.

Perhaps it doesn't look like much to you but this, Dear Reader, is a ruffler foot and not just any ruffler. This is a ruffler for my serger.

I have had my serger for a good many years.  (I bought it in DC....yeah, a good many!) I don't really end up using it all that much.  The edge is too wide, too bulky, too too too....for boxpleat doll work.  (In general...I have been trying to use it more lately to good effect as it really is quite a good machine and more versatile than I give it credit for. :)

So while this little "thing" isn't going to change the world, it certainly has facilitated some fun.

Here is what I spent the day Friday making:

The fabric is a very soft shirting weight..... chambray maybe?  It is 100% cotton, a pleasing color and I got an extra 1/2 a yard for free because there was a spot I thought would wash out.  (It did!)

With the ruffler foot on the serger this went from strips of fabric to skirt in a remarkably short time.  You see, this foot gathers what it finds on the bottom and leaves the top smooth....so really all I did was hold the fabric lightly and sew straight lines.

Well okay, it was a little trickier than that.  In fact, I think it will probably benefit from some practice.  It is a little tricky to hold the fabric in place without putting any real tension on it.  If you put any traction on the bottom layer it doesn't feed at a regular rate and you end up with straight patches instead of even ruffles.  In some sections the serged edge is not fully over the edge of both fabrics...but like I said, I think both of those problems are easily addressed now that I know what to watch for in my technique.

The one tricky thing I still am not quite sure how to solve is the problem of estimating the tiers.  When making a skirt like this the traditional way...with lots of pins and gathering stitches...you just take your two very differently shaped pieces and pin the centers, divide and pin again and again until you can pull the gathering threads and have nice even gathers that make it all the way around.  When I worked on this skirt I ended up having to add another piece to the bottom ruffle because, as much as I had, it was simply not enough to get to the end.  (That will be partially solved by decreasing the differential feed....ie the ratio of bottom gathering for every smooth stitch on top.)  I am sure there is a way to do this with math + patience but I haven't quite figured it out yet.

Once the ruffled tiers were put together... (Oh, I used the high tech measuring system of holding the first tier around my hips, adding a bit and there you go!) I plain serged the top and bottom edge.  The elastic is a half inch wide and reminds me of the kind of elastic stretchy belts were made of in the 80s!  It is fairly firm and will stand up to a lot of stretch while maintaining its  shape.  The top of the skirt is just rolled over the elastic (edge of elastic and serged edge line up.)  I put 4 rows of stitching over the top (sewing while it was stretched of course) and I will never have to worry about the irritating twist in the elastic that haunts all my casings. hehehehe  You will note that this skirt has a boxpleat tag in it.  This is the first full sized piece of clothing to bear my label.  Not that I haven't made anything for myself before....just that I always thought of boxpleat as my "Doll Business" but really it is just me and if I made it, it should have my tag. 

I chose a "fancy" stitch for the top stitching and hem.  I wanted to do it for the waist also, but I chickened out because the decorative stitches move so much back and forth I figured it would be too hard to maintain the tension in the elastic without pulling the stitch our of shape.  The fancy stitch took FOREVER!  I had forgotten that one of the reasons it is nice to do doll sewing is that you never have to do the same thing for too long.  I like the way it turned out...and that is what made me think of the catalogs of my college days.  The thread is a variegated rayon in blue gray and white, so the color progresses as you follow the stitching.

Once the skirt was finished I threw it in the washing machine.  I was perhaps a little zealous, not knowing what to expect from my little toy and the skirt was BIG....like Square Dance big.  After a wash, I twisted the skirt and then left it to dry.  The resulting shape appears neither too full, nor will ever have to be ironed...in fact, it really shouldn't be. hehehe (You know you like the sound of that.)

My only real disappointment with it is the hem.  After the wash, there is a bit of cupping....I think because the rayon thread may have shrunk.  Not sure how I would get around that in the future.  It isn't really a visual problem on this skirt with all the crinkles, but something to wonder about.  Anyone out there have any ideas?  I probably needed to have some stabilizer in the hem....sigh!

So go make something.  It will make you happy (even if you hide it in the back of your closet and no one else ever sees it. ;) k.